Witchcraft -- England; Witchcraft -- Great Britain; Witchcraft -- Scotland
when Master Tom Campbell set the whole country in a flame, and brought no
end of notice and sympathy upon his house and family. In 1654 one Gilbert
Campbell was a weaver in Glenluce, a small village not far from Newton
Stewart. Tom, his eldest son, and the most important personage in the
drama, was a student at Glasgow College; and there was a certain old
blaspheming beggar, called Andrew Agnew--afterwards hanged at Dumfries for
his atheism, having said, in the hearing of credible witnesses, that
"there was no God but salt, meal, and water"--who every now and then came
to Glenluce to ask alms. One day old Andrew visited the Campbells as
usual, but got nothing; at which he cursed and swore roundly, and
forthwith sent a devil to haunt the house, for it was soon after this
refusal that the stirs began, and the connection was too apparent to be
denied. For what could they be but the malice of the devil sent by old
Andrew in revenge? Young Tom Campbell was the worst beset of all, the
demon perpetually whistling and rioting about him, and playing him all
sorts of diabolical and malevolent tricks. Once, too, Jennet, the young
daughter, going to the well, heard a whistling behind her like that
produced by "the small slender glass whistles of children," and a voice
like the damsel's, saying, "I'll cast thee, Jennet, into the well! I'll
cast thee, Jennet, into the well!" About the middle of November, when the
days were dark and the nights long, things got very bad. The foul fiend
threw stones in at the doors and windows, and down the chimney head; cut
the warp and threads of Campbell's loom; slit the family coats and bonnets
and hose and shoon into ribbons; pulled off the bed-clothes from the
sleeping children, and left them cold and naked, besides administering
sounding slaps on those parts of their little round rosy persons usually
held sacred to the sacrifices of the rod; opened chests and trunks, and
strewed the contents over the floor; knocked everything about, and
ill-treated bairn and brother; and, in fact, persecuted the whole family
in the most merciless manner. The weaver sent his children away, thinking
their lives but barely safe, and _in their absence there were no assaults
whatever_--a thing to be specially noted. But on the minister's
representing to him that he had done a grievous sin in thus withdrawing
them from God's punishments, they were brought back again in contrition.
Only Tom was left behind, and nothing ensued until Tom appeared; but
unlucky Tom brought back the devil with him, and then there was no more
peace to be had.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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